From Cornellà del Terri, where former president Carles Puigdemont voted on 1-O, Junts held its event this Tuesday night to commemorate the eighth anniversary of the October 1 referendum. Under the slogan "Committed to 1-O," the Junts members demanded "the validity of the referendum mandate" after the independence movement lost its majority in the Catalan Parliament and have called for "finishing the job." To this end, Puigdemont called for "protection" of the formula that made 1-O possible and claimed three "ingredients" that, in his opinion, made it possible: unity, transversality—without considering "what those on our side think, what their origins are, or what religion they profess"—and a vision for the future. A message that Puigdemont repeated this Wednesday in a message on X: "It is imperative that we preserve the formula of October 1, because it is the one that leads to victory." Puigdemont defended October 1st as a "historical heritage" and the "foundation stone for building a future of freedom."

Eight years after the events of October 2017, there is still no clear consensus on what the so-called Process was. This period began with the 2012 Diada, the first organized by the ANC, and can officially be considered over on May 12, 2024, when the majority of the independence movement loses. During this period, with varying intensity, the debate over independence and the self-determination referendum dominated the Catalan and, to some extent, Spanish political agendas. There is no doubt that the culminating moment of the Process was October 1, 2017, when more than two million people participated in a referendum on independence, thus defying the ban imposed by the Spanish courts.

The high abstention rate in the referendum held in Italy between yesterday and today, Monday, has prevented the approval of an opposition proposal that sought to Reducing the legal residence period in the country to obtain Italian nationality from ten to five years. The referendum also included votes on several labor measures, which also failed to pass. For the referendum result to be binding, at least 50% of voters needed to participate. By the time the polls closed at 3 p.m. on Monday, only 30% of the electorate had voted, according to preliminary turnout data.

The Olympics held last summer in Paris ended with a historic success for Italian athletes, who returned home with more than 40 medals. One of them was Paola Egonu, the star of the women's volleyball team. Applauded for her sporting achievements, her skin color became a source of national debate after Roberto Vanacci, number two in Matteo Salvini's League, questioned the Olympic champion's "Italianness." "Her physical features do not represent the majority of Italians," the former army general also said.

The lawyer and humanist Francesc Garcia Rafanell (Barcelona, ​​​​1951) will present his latest book on Tuesday, June 3 at 7 p.m. at the 22 Bookstore in Girona We, the Catalans (Editorial Oliveras), in which he presents an analytical exposition from his point of view on the behavior of Catalans at different moments in history. Previously, Garcia Rafanell has written The discomfort of existence –which is now translated into English–, which is a philosophical essay on the origin of life, consciousness and criticism of dogmatic religions, and The Spain that could be respected by all, perhaps, which analyzes the Spanish state model from a critical and democratic perspective.

The cases of the Banco Sabadell, the La Caixa Foundation and its holding company Criteria, the Molins cement factory Or Laboratorios Ordes, which has returned its registered office to Catalonia after leaving in the wake of the 1-O referendum, is not a one-off; there have been more movements. For the first time, concrete data is available: 681 of the companies that moved their registered offices out of Catalonia at the end of 2017 and during 2018 have already returned. This is evident from the latest report on registered office movements by Informa BD, part of the Cesce group, corresponding to the first quarter of 2025. ~BK_SLT_L~ also shows the return of Catalan companies that left as a result of 1-O. It is true that among those that have not yet returned, there are some that are part of the Ibex 35, such as CaixaBank (although in this case it has returned to its main shareholder, Criteria), Colonial, or Naturgy. In fact, the 681 companies that have returned to Catalonia represent 7.39% of the 9,221 that have left since the fourth quarter of 2017, according to Informa.

"I felt like I was in prison; I could smell the prison from the terrace of my house." With these words, the chief of the Mossos d'Esquadra and current director of the Catalan police, Josep Lluís Trapero, recalled his most "complicated" days. They date back to the years following the October 1st referendum, when Trapero, who stepped down as chief of the Mossos d'Esquadra in 1955, was indicted for sedition and ended up being tried in the National Court. facing sentences of 10 years in prisonIn that process, Trapero "breathed the prison breath."

For the first time in this legislature, yesterday the Parliamentary bureau admitted problematic resolutions related to self-determination that can place it in the spotlight. The pro-independence members of Together for Catalonia (JxCat), Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and anti-capitalist CUP, headed by the Speaker, Laura Borràs, endorsed the processing of a CUP resolution proposing a new referendum this legislature and that can contravene – according to the constitutionalist opposition – the mandates of the Constitutional Court on the Independence bid. After Vox threatened with lawsuits, sources close to Borràs have expressed her discomfort over the CUP's initiative, and JxCat MP Francesc Dalmases openly wrote on Twitter that the gesture was "useless and stupid", in addition to accusing the CUP of "partisanship".

Carles Puigdemont will only have the possibility of being pardoned if he returns to Spain and is judged. This has been assured by the Minister of Justice, Juan Carlos Campo, who has stated that the Spanish government "does not consider in any case" an early pardon of the Catalan ex -President exiled in Belgium. Campo has admitted that this formula is possible, despite the fact that essentially the pardon requires that there is a firm conviction. There is, however, an exception.

The pro-independence movement still has to agree on what it means to have obtained 51% of the votes in Sunday's elections, but for the Spanish government it does not change anything. The first vice president, Carmen Calvo, has downplayed the success of parties that defend Catalonia should have its own state and has warned that the referendum of self-determination "is not in the framework of the Constitution nor legality". "It doesn't matter what percentage a party gets in a territorial election in relation to an issue that is not constitutional or legal," she said at the press conference after the Council of Ministers.